Week 4

Question 1
Research is divided into two major sectors – academic and private. From your textbook, read up on the section relating to academic vs private research and summarise the points that differentiate between these two. You may find this reading in Chapter 1 of Wimmer and Dominick (pages 14-16 in the latest 9th edition).

Difference between academic and private research:

Academic	Differences	Private
Scholars from colleges & university.	Conducted by	Non-governmental companies / their research consultants.
Intended to explain the mass media & their effects on individuals.	Aim	Intended to facilitate decision-making.
Public	Service	Private (Public after few years)
No specific deadlines except when they receive research grants.	Deadlines	Have deadlines, imposed by management or an outside agency or client.
Less expensive	Cost	More expensive; to cover overhead cost for office rent, equipment, facilities, computer analysis, subcontractors and personnels.

Question 2
Explain the 8 steps of research, giving examples to illustrate what each step entails, if necessary.


Steps:
8 steps
1. Selecting and defining research problem.

• Observe things around you to get an idea on what you want to research
• Your little cousins are watching cartoons; you want to know what effect the programme has on your cousins.

2. Determining Topic Relevance and significance.

• Is the topic you want to research worth being researched?
• Do you have the resources and enough financial support to analyze the data?
• Are the results needed?

3. Review of Literature

• Learn from previous research
• So that we wont plagiarise a same research that had been done
• Using existing data to justify your own research
• As background and building block
• Same time, costs

4. Stating a Hypothesis or research question

• Research question are open ended questions that researchers want to know
• What is the effect of violence cartoons to children
• Hypothesis is a sentence, a theory

5. Preparing research Instrument

• Questionnaire
• Interview questions
• Journal

6. Data Collection

• A fieldwork to collect the data you want to know using specific instruments

7. Data Analysis and Interpretation

• Analyse the data that have collected
• i. External validity – results can be generalized to population *random samples
• ii. Internal validity – study and investigate the proposed research questions *history

8. Presenting results

• Present in a clear manner
• Project paper
• thesis